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Saturday, April 25, 2015

Update on Volcán Calbuco

As you can imagine...this has been an interesting few days. President Lovell and the assistants made phone calls and President watched the news to keep updated on what was happening with the volcano and the situation of the missionaries in each of the zones.

After our Wonderful Zone Conference in Zapala on Thursday we spent the night there and planned to get up early to drive to Cultral Co for the Zone Conference there. We picked up the Assistants at 6:30 and started out of town. At the edge of town we were stopped by a "cut" in the road because of the volcano.

That means that the road was closed! There must have been poor visibility during the night because of the volcano ash!

There were a lot of impatient drives as we sat and waited. Some of them just went up and around the block on a side road and went on their way!

We sat and waited until almost 9:00 when the road was opened and we were finally on our way.

When we reached the chapel in Cultral Co it was quite clear.

There was a small amount of Volcano dust on the ground and a little in the air.

One of the big health concerns for the missionaries is breathing the volcano dust in the air. President Lovell's Brother is a Professor at BYU-I in the geology department. He told us of the importance of not breathing the ash. Because of not wanting to take any chances of causing respiratory problems for any of the missionaries they were asked to stay in their pensions all day yesterday. It is so hard for them to stay in!

A member in Cultral Co provided the missionaries with masks and goggles! They really do take good care of our missionaries!

We arrived back in Neuquén last night. Today the sky is blue!

But there is a coat of volcano dust on everything!

All the missionaries were able to get out and work today! They are so glad! All is back to normal as long as there is not another eruption! Thank you for your concern and your prayers!